Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Skirt Upcycle

A few weeks ago, I saw this great skirt tutorial on MADE. I just had to make a circle skirt. I went to the store and found this gorgeous, medium-weight, knitted fabric. I made the skirt, but didn't hem it yet, tried it on, and was so sad. The fabric I had chosen was neither light enough to flow out, or stiff enough to stay out. It hung down my body like a bunch of drapes.

In the past, I would have just written this off as a failed project, but not this time. I looked at the fabric, and the design, and thought about how I could fix it. What I finally decided to do, was make it an a-line skirt. I love the way an a-line dress or skirt fits my body, and thought that I could work with that material and that pattern. I began by turning the skirt inside-out, and cutting triangles of fabric out of the fabric. I cut out eight pieces. They were each about 8 inches at the bottom (but remember that it is folded, so you should only cut 4 inches).

I then sewed the gaps shut with a sewing and binding seam on my machine.

When I was finished with all the gaps, it looked like this (still inside-out).

I then cut the bottom and hemed the skirt to fit me. Now what I needed was something to really give this skirt some identity. I used the extra fabric I had from all the disections, to create verticle ruffles. I cut strips about 2.5 inches wide. That were roughly 1.5 times the length of my skirt from waist to hem. I used the largest stitch on my sewing machine to sew through the center of each strip. I created the ruffles by pulling gently on one thread until the fabric puckered to the right length.

To finish, I pinned each ruffle on top of a seam, and stitched in place. I wore my upcycle to work yesterday, and the first thing anyone said to me was, "cute skirt Malory."

I think this was a success, and I will have to make a circle skirt out of a different fabric (I still love the pattern, and how easy it was to make).